Terrorism and the MediaTerrorism has played a role affecting civilization for a hundred of years. The acts of violence have aims and objectives which intend on being achieved by the perpetrators themselves, or by the organizations that support these acts. With the aid of the present day media, acts of terrorism are now becoming designed to grasp the attention of the entire world and compel a terrorist organization's message into the spotlight for the whole world to look at. Reasons and purpose for attacks are often derived from the news so what better way for a terrorists organization to relay there message than the news. Most recently affecting the U.S were the events occurring on September 11th. People have interest in the events occurring all over the world, and the media will portray the message however they can. Within minutes of the first tower being struck, the devastation spread around the world, and was on every television channel for days. Around the world newspapers had front page news coverage of the attacks. The Twin Towers had been destroyed by an unknown enemy and its effects were broadcasted globally. The mass media are basically the spokesmen of the terrorists, the transmitters of information globally to a world audience. The September 11 attacks were designed for the media, and the achievement of the terrorists activities were announced for them to see through the misery and suffering of those affected by the attacks. Albert Bandura stated: "Terrorists try to exercise influence over targeted officials on nations through intimidation of the public and arousal of sympathy for the social and political causes they expose. Without widespread publicity, terrorist acts can achieve neither of these effects." (Bandura, Albert qtd. In Nacos 1). Terrorists need the news media to get the publicity, and the media is a willing to get their message across. The news media is a crucial component to terrorism. In knowing that, a set of standards should be issued so that a terrorist's ability to portray their message to a large audience during terrorist situations should be limited. The media point out mistakes without over emphasizing and give equal coverage to both sides of the issue. Terrorism is the use of violence against innocent's victim to bring about political change through fear. The relationship between terrorism and the media is symbiotic (Lockyer1). In 1980 the New York Times, printed a total of 916 articles on terrorist events. This means that terrorists were getting their message out nearly three times a day to the American public (Miller 60). Terrorists have usually used the media for four main reasons. The first reason is to have their message heard and to strike fear into their target group. The second is to win over the public's support for their cause, by highlighting themes like, the righteousness of their cause, and the assuredness of their victory. Third they use media to disrupt government and security responses. By suggesting that they are overreacting and their efforts are counterproductive. Finally, the fourth is to raise the moral of their current members, raise recruitment, and encourage more attacks (Alexander 30-31). Censorship of media's coverage of terrorist events is a solution to the new strong relationship between the media and terrorists. During many terrorist incidents the police do not want all the information released, in fear of the public's safety, and the security of their future actions. Swaying the public's belief in police forces dealing with the terrorist incident is a motive of terrorists. An example of the media needing restraint occurred on April 30, 1980, when a group of Arab secessionists captured the Iranian embassy in London. As the SWAT teams began to move in their biggest advantage was surprise. But, that was basically destroyed by a camera man from British Independent Television who got past the police barricade and broadcasted a live...

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What is the meaning of terrorism and the mass media? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary online, the meaning of terrorism is the systematic use of terror as means of coercion. Terrorism has spawned heated debate. Instead of agreeing on the definition of terrorism, social scientists, policy makers, lawyers, and security specialists often argue about the meaning of the term (White 4). We can agree what that terrorism is a problem, but we cannot agree on what terrorism is (White 4). According to Alex Schmid (1992), terrorism is not a physical entity that has dimensions to be measured, weighted and analyzed. It is a social construct; that is, terrorism is defined by different people within vacillating social and political realities (White 4). The definition of any social construct changes with the social reality can be nebulous, or it can be threatening when one group imposes its version of reality on another (White 4). One of the primary reasons terrorism is difficult to define is that the meaning changes within social and historical contexts (White 6). Changes in the meaning occur because terrorism is not a solid entity (White 6-7).
News media refers to television, radio, and print journalism. It also refers to newer sources on the...

...
Mid-term Paper
Ryan M. Faught
Arkansas Tech University
Terrorism has been a major topic of research for many years. We’ve learned a lot about terrorism and terrorist groups, but there are still major questions to be answered. What exactly is a terrorist? What causes ordinary people to become terrorists? What attracts people to terrorism? How do terrorist groups in the Middle East recruit and radicalize people from all over the world? In this paper I will discuss these questions and more according to the knowledge I’ve gained from reading these five research papers.
Terrorism is the use, or threat, of action which is violent, damaging or disrupting and is intended to influence the government or intimidate the public and is for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause (De Zulueta, 2006). This or any definition of terrorism is still subjective depending on the “terrorist” and the situation. For instance, most Americans don’t consider the founding fathers as terrorists, but freedom fighters. In the same way, radical Muslims may look at al Qaeda as freedom fighters, although most of the world would view them as terrorists. The deciding factor that separates freedom fighters from terrorists appears to be the intentional murder of innocent people. Terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda are well known for such murders. Rather than merely fighting for freedom, they wish to create a...

...﻿MEDIA NEGATIVE ASPECT
Opening: Let me begin by stating that all in the world is not as you have been told. The old saying that "truth is stranger than fiction" couldn't be more accurate, for we have been deceived on such a grand scale that most would have a difficult time in comprehending the full extent.
The behind the scenes machinations of big money and politics are so well hidden from most of the population, that if people actually knew how things were really run, we would quite literally have a second revolution overnight. Henry Ford knew this well when he said, "It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning."
Most people who read this might have a hard time fathoming how an entire nation could be so well deceived, but it's really not that hard when you understand the inner workings and hierarchy of an overly revered media in which we place our blind trust.
The truth is not as you know it. Our faith in the media myth has been our Achilles heel.
Many have realized long ago that our politicians will lie to us at the drop of a hat, but most have no clue that our news media lies and deceives us just as much, if not more so.
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...covered in the media, so much so that questions arise as to whether or not the extensive coverage is precisely what the terrorists want. The unspoken question here seems to be, does this kind of media reporting encourage terrorist attacks? I also want to explore another question, namely, if no one reported on the attacks, would they stop? I intend to discuss these questions and try to determine if, by covering terrorist attacks in depth, journalists are subconsciously fulfilling the terrorists' desires for publicity, attention and justification.
Communications and Terrorism Today
Until fairly recently, communications were limited. But with the improvements in telecommunications, particularly satellites, and the spiral of the Internet, the world is suddenly much smaller. Now there are “live broadcasts from anywhere on the globe” giving terrorists “the widest publicity for their spectacular violent acts” (Nacos, 1994). Nacos continues, “While international terrorists stage their violence primarily if not exclusively for publicity, media coverage is only the means by which these perpetrators try to promote and realise their various goals.”
However this can be questionned because Nacos bases this view on the assumption that terrorists do what they do for publicity. Although this seems questionnable as killing inncocent people and children surely can't just be for publicity and to be notices. It is therefore we...

...International Journal of Comparative Sociology http://cos.sagepub.com/
Terror, Media, and Moral Boundaries
Nachman Ben-Yehuda International Journal of Comparative Sociology 2005 46: 33 DOI: 10.1177/0020715205054469 The online version of this article can be found at: http://cos.sagepub.com/content/46/1-2/33
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Terror, Media, and Moral Boundaries
Nachman Ben-Yehuda* ABSTRACT
The relationship between terror and its presentation in the media is examined. The process of presenting terror is characterized as a method of challenging, negotiating, and redrawing moral boundaries. On the one hand, examining the terror–media relationship in this fashion enables us to transcend issues involved in taking a stand regarding the contents of speciﬁc acts of terror. On the other hand, making a stand regarding the nature of terror requires a moral decision. Any such stand regarding the content of...

...What To Do?: Terrorism and the Media
Imagine you are a resident of Jerusalem, in the year 60 AD. You are taking
a walk throughout the marketplace doing your weekly shopping. You see a man
pull out a dagger and he yells death to all Romans' and attacks a roman guard,
killing him in front of hundreds of spectators. The assassin quietly slips into
the crowd and is lost in a sea of people never to be found. The word of the
attack spreads and soon it is the talk of the town. Many more attacks on Romans
are made by the Sicarii and the Zealots. Sympathizers of the Romans slowly
disappear and their voices vanish from Jerusalem. The fear of terrorism grows
and Roman repression grows along with it, this in turn leads to the people of
Jerusalem to revolt in 70 AD (Miller V). If this attack had been made in some
dark alley with no spectators would the people react the way they did?
The marketplace of old Jerusalem, can be compared to the media of today.
What better place to get the public informed about your reasons and purpose for
attacks than the news. Albert gave a good definition of terrorist's objectives
when he stated: "Terrorists try to exercise influence over targeted officials on
nations through intimidation of the public and arousal of sympathy for the
social and political causes they espouse. Without widespread publicity,
terrorist acts can achieve neither of these effects" (Bandura, Albert qtd. In...

...Assignment 1
Cyber terrorism
Cyber terrorists use information technology to attack civilians and draw attention to their cause. This may mean that they use information technology, such as computer systems or telecommunications, as a tool to orchestrate a traditional attack. More often, cyber terrorism refers to an attack on information technology itself in a way that would radically disrupt networked services. For example, cyber terrorists could disable networked emergency systems or hack into networks housing critical financial information. There is wide disagreement over the extent of the existing threat by cyber terrorists.
Cyberterrorism is the use of Internet based attacks in terrorist activities, including acts of deliberate, large-scale disruption of computer networks, especially of personal computers attached to the Internet, by the means of tools such as computer viruses.
Cyberterrorism is a controversial term. Some authors choose a very narrow definition, relating to deployments, by known terrorist organizations, of disruption attacks against information systems for the primary purpose of creating alarm and panic. By this narrow definition, it is difficult to identify any instances of cyberterrorism.
Cyberterrorism can be also defined as the intentional use of computer, networks, and public internet to cause destruction and harm for personal objectives.[1] Objectives may be political or ideological since this is a form of...

...Terrorism and Mass Media
What makes someone so powerful that if they were murdered, they would be labeled as assassinated? A similar question can be asked to that of terrorism--when can an act of violence properly be called "terrorism"? In the wake of 9/11, then President Bush declared war against terrorism but just who specifically he was referring to is still being debated today. However, one piece of the puzzle in making that determination is the use of mass media to combat terrorism. Definitions of terrorism is abound but the general consensus is that terrorism is a criminal act that puts people in a state of terror and/or uses force or violence. The observation that "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter frequently can be applied to statements about terrorist actions made by both governments and mass media. The media is becoming increasingly competitive and commercial pressures are complicated by the fact that many top executives come from the corporate world and no longer from the ranks of journalists.
Television has become the leading news medium, with newspapers only supplementary to TVs instant, live, emotional coverage. Events produce strong pictures that consequently go to the top of the news hierarchy. The emotional shocks of these pictures are what sell. Terrorists...